Biography
For those with quirkier tastes, New York's Yeah Yeah Yeahs were one of the rock bands who kept things interesting in the 2000s. With a striking frontwoman in Karen O and a sound that drew both from garage rock and lush European pop, the band followed their sometime tourmates the Strokes and the White Stripes to breakout commercial success. The trio was formed at two different colleges, first at Oberlin where the South Korean-born O (real name, Karen Orzolek) met drummer Brian Chase, then at New York University where she met guitarist Nick Zinner after transferring. Initially their sound was raw and punkish, and "Bang," the leadoff track from their first EP, was a hit on the college stations that dared to play it. 2003 brought their major-label debut, Fever to Tell, which showed them as a band in transition: The album's first half continued the sound of the EP; the second was more produced and heavier on ballads, with Zinner playing multiple keyboards along with guitar. One of those tracks, "Maps" became their breakout hit. Propelled by the single and by O's visibility (she was named Sex Goddess of the Year in Spin magazine and turned down a Playboy cover), the band became stars and the album ultimately sold a million copies. The followup single, "Y Control," had a video directed by Spike Jonze, with whom O was having a relationship. The band wrote and then scrapped a follow-up album, citing the need to move on. 2007's "Show Your Bones and 2009's It's Blitz! both continued the move to a more elegant European sound. The latter album's first single, "Zero" was infectious pop that sounded closer to Lady Gaga than the White Stripes; it appeared in numerous TV shows and was named the best song of the year by Spin and the New Musical Express. While O continued to collaborate with Spike Jonze, she directed the band's video for "Cheated Hearts" herself. 2013 brought their fourth album, Mosquito, which returned to a guitar-based rock sound. It became their best selling album and the first to go Top Ten in Billboard. After its release the Yeah Yeah Yeahs went on hiatus and O released her solo debut, Crush Songs, inspired by a series of crushes she experienced after her breakup with Jonze. In mid-2017 the band teased online that they were getting back together and working on new music; they wound up touring late in the year behind a deluxe reissue of Fever to Tell.
